Black Hat: MacBook WiFi bug 'overhyped'

A five-man panel of judges at this week's Black Hat hacker's conference last year declared security researchers David Maynor and Jon Ellch's claims of a MacBook WiFi bug as "overhyped".

By
Jonny Evans
| 03 Aug 07

A five-man panel of judges at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas last night offered a string of awards for security researchers - and slammed last year's widely-publicised MacBook WiFi vulnerability as "hype".

Security researchers David Maynor and Jon Ellch last year claimed to have found a way to seize control of Apple MacBooks by using a vulnerability in Apple's wireless software.

While the researchers stressed the problem wasn't specific to Apple - and indeed used a third-party wireless card to demonstrate the claimed flaw, rather than the laptop's built-in AirPort card, the story was widely reported.

Despite the surrounding media hype, the researchers later denied the published claims, saying it had been mis-reported.

One year on and the Black Hat judges gave the flaw the negative distinction of being, "the most overhyped bug".

“In the end, the only public information about Maynor’s WiFi vulnerabilities are hype, denial, a media frenzy, and a patch that may or may not have been based on Maynor’s findings," the judges said, as reported on ZDnet.